Howard Kurtz has been The Washington Post's media reporter since 1990. He is also the host of CNN's "Reliable Sources" and the author of "Media Circus," "Hot Air," "Spin Cycle" and "The Fortune Tellers: Inside Wall Street's Game of Money, Media and Manipulation." Kurtz talks about the press and the stories of the day in "Media Backtalk."

Sure, You Read Me, But Who'll Friend Me? (Post, June 4)

The transcript follows.

Media Backtalk transcripts archive

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Arlington, Va.: Mr. Kurtz, I haven't heard much backlash from anyone else about this issue, but I find it rather offensive that whenever a member of the media gets injured in Iraq it becomes a huge news story. Our soldiers are dying over there every day, but all I saw Memorial Day weekend on TV was about the CBS reporter who was injured by an IED. I agree that it is terrible that she was hurt, but when our soldiers often only get the "Seven Soldiers Killed" headline I find it a bit skewed. Do you think these stories are overplayed, and if so do you think it's a big story because it is "one of your own"?

washingtonpost.com: Shrapnel Slows, But Doesn't Stop CBS Reporter (Post, May 24)

Howard Kurtz: If you had seen Kimberly Dozier's special or read my piece, you would know that she puts the emphasis on what happens to American troops, not on her injuries or the deaths of her two CBS colleagues. Yes, prominent network correspondents who are injured tend to get more attention than unknown soldiers, but both Dozier and Bob Woodruff have used their personal tragedies to train the spotlight back on the soldiers. Here's what Dozier, who had more than 25 operations after the bombing, told me:

"The importance of that day is not that we were there. We were there during what happens to soldiers 20 to 30 times a day. Everything that happened that day is the story of the U.S. military in Iraq."

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Los Angeles: Howard -- we don't begrudge you time off, but I for one would really appreciate it, when your column will not be up for a few days, if you or The Washington Post could post a notice to that effect and indicating when your column will return. It's a bit frustrating to keep looking for my fix of Media Notes only to be disappointed day after day...

Howard Kurtz: I certainly hate to disappoint my readers. I'll see what I can do on that front.

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Falls Church, Va.: Cindy Sheehan's Memorial Day resignation from the antiwar movement essentially was ignored by the media last week. CNN.com ran it, and the New York Times eventually ran it a few days later, but both soft-pedaled her criticisms of Democrats. You wouldn't have learned from those articles, for instance, about Democratic activists calling her an "attention whore." I don't think The Post ever bothered to mention her resignation, let alone her reasons for it. Obviously, it's easy to take a media-bias view of this and speculate that Sheehan gets ignored when she's not limiting her criticism to Republicans. Do you have any other thoughts as to why her event passed so unnoticed?

washingtonpost.com: Sheehan's 'Resignation' (Post, May 30)

Howard Kurtz: I thought The Post underplayed the story by relegating it to a brief column item. We talked about this on Reliable Sources yesterday. Sheehan had faded from the news in the past year, both because she was "saying some nutty things," as one of my guests put it, and because -- with two-thirds of the American public believing that things are going badly in Iraq -- the media no longer need a grieving mother to serve as a symbol of the movement. When Sheehan began her protest outside Bush's ranch in August 2005, most Democratic officials had not openly turned against the war and journalists lavished all kinds of attention on Sheehan, turning her into the face of the antiwar movement. For that reason alone, I think her bowing out deserved more coverage, especially since she complained on Daily Kos that the left turned on her when she began criticizing Democrats as well as Republicans over the war.

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Floris, Va.: I am an Edwards supporter, but still thought last night's debate to be unfair. By the clock, Edwards, Obama and Clinton got more time than the other five candidates combined. Shouldn't -- at least in the early going -- an effort be made to give everyone equal time, which was missing from last night's CNN Dem debate?

Howard Kurtz: I don't have any great problem with giving the most time to the people most likely to become president. I felt like we certainly heard from Joe Biden, Chris Dodd and Bill Richardson as well as the three frontrunners. The other approach would be to make sure Mike Gravel got exactly the same amount of time as Hillary Clinton, and I'm not sure that's the best use of the airtime.

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Wake Forest, N.C.: Any chance the media will stop falling for the government hype on supposed terrorist plots? It seems like every time we get blaring headlines on scary terrorists we get the backtracking the next day. There also always seems to be some FBI informant who is involved directly in the planning and plotting. I mean, aren't there enough real terrorists out there without us trying to stir up more?

Howard Kurtz: I'm glad that federal agents are out there breaking up potential terror plots before they become reality, but it's true that these arrests get all sorts of media hype -- especially on television -- despite the fact that the plots are broken up at a very early stage. The worst were those seven clowns who wanted to attack the Sears Tower but had no equipment and hadn't even been to Chicago. So I think journalists need to provide more of a reality check in reporting on these cases.

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New York: What's wrong with me? I've perused MySpace and other places like it and I find it interminably dull. How people spend hours surfing there is beyond me. But I also find reality TV incredibly boring, and there seems to be a strong link between the two. They both involve voyeuristically looking at other people's personal lives. But I have no interest in the personal lives of people I don't know. I really wish I did. I feel so out of place.

Howard Kurtz: You have no desire to interact with hundreds of strangers with whom you have only a virtual relationship? Man, that's hard to understand. My column this morning is about my misadventures on Facebook and trying to understand the culture at a site that was once a gated community for college students.

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Summerfield, N.C.: As a legal immigrant (and now citizen) of this country, I am probably more interested in the immigration issue than many other Americans. I find, however, that the news that I read and hear seems to ignore my perspective. Why have I not seen or heard anything about how legal immigrants feel about the proposed changes to immigration law? It seems to me that this is a hole in the current coverage.

washingtonpost.com: Legal Residents Dismayed Over Latest Measures (Post, June 3)

Howard Kurtz: That's an interesting point, although I see The Post has done at least one story on precisely that point. It's understandable to me that most of the coverage would focus on the 12 million illegal immigrants, given the very emotional "amnesty" debate revolves around them, as well as border security and other aspects of the bill. What is equally interesting is how many conservatives are ripping Bush over this compromise approach, although he has held a similar stance on immigration since his days as Texas governor.

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wiredog: Did you really admit, in print, to having once worn bellbottom jeans? Could you possibly have embarrassed yourself more?

Howard Kurtz: I probably did embarrass myself more, but this self-revelation is going to go only so far. Besides, making bad fashion choices doesn't seem so ludicrous when everyone around you is doing the same thing. Plus, I was young and irresponsible.

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Anonymous: I guess Cindy Sheehan learned something a lot of people find out  -- criticize people and they can turn on you.

Howard Kurtz: And, in addition, if you go around calling George Bush the world's worst terrorist and meet with Hugo Chavez and say you'd rather live in Venezuela, even those who agreed with you on the war are going to distance themselves.

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Atlanta: Good morning. What is the latest on replacement morning show for Imus on MSNBC? It still appears they are having tryouts. Any idea how long it will be before they decide? Thanks.

Howard Kurtz: I didn't catch it this morning. So far MSNBC has tried out Joe Scarborough, Jim Cramer, David Gregory, Stephanie Miller, Michael Smerconish, Larry Elder and maybe one or two others. There was a report a week ago that the network was high on Scarborough's "Morning Joe" appearances -- he's done two rounds of filling in -- but I don't know if that means he's close to getting the nod.

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Winnipeg, Canada: When interviewing John McCain about the immigration bill recently, Bill O'Reilly said: "But do you understand what the New York Times wants, and the far-left want? They want to break down the white, Christian, male power structure, which you're a part of, and so am I, and they want to bring in millions of foreign nationals to basically break down the structure that we have." This strikes me as out-and-out white supremacist bilge, and far more offensive than Don Imus' comments about a few college basketball players. Can you explain why these comments have not created a media firestorm? Or am I, as a while male, overreacting?

washingtonpost.com: Video: The O'Reilly Factor Interview With Sen. John McCain (Fox News, May 30)

Howard Kurtz: I didn't see it, but there is such a thing as free speech in this country, and people don't tend to get kicked off television for taking strong stands on controversial issues, even if many people strongly disagree with them. Or rather, I should say that such people don't tend to get kicked off if they get good ratings.

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New York: Your first questioner asked about the reporting of soldier deaths in Iraq -- I have to say that the numbers have begun to run together for me. Every morning I wake up to the BBC and the first thing I hear is double-digit deaths from car bombing, usually single digit deaths of soldiers, and it has such a routine sound to it that I sometimes think I'm hearing yesterday's news over again. The only time it really stands out is when I'm listening to the radio rerun of the PBS evening news. They show photos of the dead in silence at the end of their newscast -- because it's being repeated on the radio they have to say what's going on visually -- sometimes they have to repeat that two or three times. I find that simple cue terribly sad.

Howard Kurtz: I've talked about this with many journalists who have been to Iraq, and with many news executives. All agree that, more than four years into the war, it's a challenge to deal with the growing numbers of casualties and humanize the story so that it's not just a series of numbing numbers.

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Arlington, Va.: I found today's Facebook column to be rather humorous. I am an adult (late 30s) user of MySpace and have been for a little more than a year. I current have a grand total of 74 "friends." That is largely because I am rather selective. I can't even begin to count the number of spam friend requests I have received from users using photos of scantily clad large-breasted women as their personal photos. I always assume they either are looking to sell me something or phish me or something. So they go immediately into the big trash can of "deny". So, don't feel bad you have few friends. It's quality, not quantity that matters online, as in real life.

Howard Kurtz: Now I feel worse! I haven't even been approached by any scantily-clad women looking to scam me. At least you get the opportunity to take the high road and reject them.

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Absurd debate questions: Howard: The debate questioners have really gone overboard with their ridiculous hypothetical "what would you do" questions. The one last night was "you have 20 minutes to get Bin Laden and you'll kill innocent civilians if you do -- do you do it?" Is it even possible to confirm someone's location, lock in on it, program a missile and launch it in 20 minutes? I find that hard to believe. I think we need to fact-check the questioners.

Howard Kurtz: This follows Brit Hume's "24"-type question on whether the candidates would torture someone -- ah, "aggressively interrogate" them -- to thwart a nuclear attack. I confess that I'm not a fan of hypothetical questions.

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Rolla, Mo.: Why do we have a frenzy over last week's drug-resistant TB patient when there is an even more compelling story going on with a similar type of patient out West? In that case, not only is the patient being held against his will, but his jailor (he is being held on any criminal charges) has treated him like a prisoner in isolation for bad behavior, withholding TVs, phone calls, etc.

washingtonpost.com: Virulent New Strain of TB Raising Fears of Pandemic (Post, May 3)

Howard Kurtz: I'm not familiar with the other case, but it was reported just moments ago that the hospital treating Andrew Speaker found that he is not contagious. That doesn't make it any less sobering that he was able to pass through all those airports, but at least no one was endangered, apparently. I wonder how long it'll be before he gets a book deal.

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Cupertino, Calif.: Just a thought out of the blue for you. Those of us who have stopped watching TV (because the Internet provides all the news we ever need) sometimes miss important scheduled events, such as last night's debate. I have TiVo, but it's not programmed to record news (who needs it when the U.S. news format is so formulaic and fluffy, and better news can be had online). Naturally, it also didn't pick up the debate, maybe because it didn't match my preferences for Charlie Rose interviews and sci-fi thrillers. It strikes me that there may be a role for "old" media like The Washington Post to step in and provide a video service (free, of course ... maybe with ads) online with events like this. Being a paper of record, I would expect The Washington Post to provide the full event, not just excerpts.

Howard Kurtz: Except The Post can't do it when networks like MSNBC and Fox pay for these debates and, understandably, want to control the video. I believe CNN is making the video of last night's debate available for free. It's fine to get your news online if that's your preference, but then you're not seeing big events the way most of the country sees them -- through television. TiVo alert: CNN is hosting a Republican debate tomorrow at 7 p.m. Eastern.

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Little Rock, Ark.: One author of a new Hillary Clinton book left his pregnant wife for another woman. His screenwriter wife wrote a movie about the situation. A co-author of another book on Sen Clinton had his writings about the Clinton's financial dealings trashed by a judge in a courtroom. All of the authors are referred to by news media as "respected" journalists without mentioning the possibility of one author harboring some misgivings about powerful women or another having had facts challenged in previous news articles. Is the media overlooking possible bias and factual shortcomings of colleagues who wrote these tomes?

washingtonpost.com: Books Paint Critical Portraits of Clinton (Post, May 25)

Howard Kurtz: How in the world does it affect the quality of Carl Bernstein's book that he left his wife more than a quarter-century ago? The man helped break the Watergate scandal. Will you only read books by people who never have gotten divorced? The Bernstein book may or may not be good -- I've just received it today -- but I prefer to judge it on its merits. Also, I don't believe the accuracy of Jeff Gerth's reporting on Whitewater (he's the ex-New York Times reporter who coauthored the other Hillary book) seriously has been challenged. What has been challenged is how important the Whitewater affair was and whether Gerth and the rest of the media made too much of the scandal.

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Fairfax, Va.: Howard, one of the things that disturbs me about the "terrorist plots" is that the FBI informants are often fomenters. The story last week about the gentleman in hiding noted that there was no conspiracy till he instigated it, and that becomes entrapment, doesn't it?

Howard Kurtz: That is always the legal question in such cases, and not just terrorism cases. If there is an FBI informant, did that person merely infiltrate a plot that already was being carried out by others? Or did the undercover informant instigate the planning for a crime that would not have occurred otherwise? That would be entrapment, and it often is argued by defense lawyers in these cases.

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Summerfield, N.C.: Hello again. I read the article you pointed to regarding legal immigrant's response to the new bill, but it only reflected on the inability to bring relatives into the country. My concerns are more along the lines of obeying all laws, taking the time to do everything correctly, and the seeming disconnect between what is expected of a legal immigrant and what will be expected of illegal immigrants under this legislation. I really find it upsetting that I obeyed the law and yet someone who did not could end up ahead of legal immigrants. This is very difficult to explain to my teenagers.

Howard Kurtz: I understand -- although the provisions of this bill, as I understand them, involve quite a lengthy process in which those already here illegally have to apply for citizenship, pay fines and return to their native country before they can be granted legal status.

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Boston: Those aren't "hypothetical" questions. They are comic book cliche questions.

Howard Kurtz: Seems more like prime-time drama stuff to me.

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Indianapolis: I notice your Facebook profile isn't open to everything -- just your friends. Why did you register that way? What are you trying to hide? :-)

Howard Kurtz: You would have to be admitted into my inner circle of friends to find out. Not that I did that deliberately -- it just seems to be the way the place is set up.

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Silver Spring, Md.: I find the arc of the Cindy Sheehan story to be fascinating, especially the beginning. Remember those long ago boring late summer days when some lady was pestering the President while he vacationed in Crawford. He had a mandate and was fighting the war on terror. She was a bit odd. My feeling is that she didn't change much during this time but the rest of the country shifted around her.

Soldier's Mother Takes Protest to Bloggers (Post, Aug. 11, 2005)

When the War Won't Stay at Bay (Post, Aug. 18, 2005)

Cindy Sheehan's Pitched Battle (Post, Aug. 13, 2005)

Howard Kurtz: She got a lot of ink and air time by demanding to meet with Bush, even though he had met with her once before. Sheehan certainly could say that she was ahead of many people who now view the war as a mistake, but as I said, it was her pronouncements on other issues that I think wound up undermining her support. She also says that her single-minded crusade led to her divorce and strained relations with her surviving children. I find the whole thing kind of sad.

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Boston: What's next for Stone Phillips of NBC "Dateline"? Is this a Kremlin-like consolidation of power by Brian Williams (pushing out any of his prior competitors for the anchor seat) or simple budget cuts? "Dateline" is left with Ann Curie, whose interview style grates me to no end. Phillips departure is NBC's loss.

washingtonpost.com: Anchor Stone Phillips Out at NBC News (AP, May 22)

Howard Kurtz: A Kremlin-like consolidation of power? What's next, somebody will have Stone poisoned? He was never remotely in line to become the Nightly News anchor. Phillips is just the latest victim of a concerted cost-cutting drive by NBC. As "Dateline" dwindled from five nights a week to just one, it became harder for the network to justify the cost of having two anchors for the program (Ann Curry being the other one).

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Baltimore: On humanizing the war, two stories jump out to me: the story showing flag draped coffins returning to Dover (I think it was in the Seattle Times in 2004); and The Post's story about Walter Reed. The photos and the story about the honor guard returning the fallen to U.S. soil reminded me of the price these soldiers and Marines have had to pay. The story about Walter Reed reminded me of how much needs to be done to care for the vets who do manage to make it back home. Other than that, it has to be hard to humanize the loss in the media. Numbers alone no longer matter. Stories from individual families help, but they can't capture the magnitude of the issue.

washingtonpost.com: Walter Reed and Beyond: A Washington Post Investigation

Howard Kurtz: I agree. Even if major news organizations did major stories on every soldier who was killed or badly wounded in Iraq, they would tend to run together in the public mind. That's the sad reality of war. It's hard to process 3,400 deaths.

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New York:"What would you do?" This seems to stem to the Mike Dukakis debacle when he was asked what he would do if his wife and kids were brutally murdered, or something like that. Mostly these are "gotcha" questions. Something that can have legs and stretch a few days. It's not intended to illicit any insight to a person's decision making, morals or ability. Sure, informing the public is an intended goal, but it's not their main job -- selling papers or gaining viewers is. Perhaps these debates ought not be conducted by journalists.

Howard Kurtz: Well, the second hour of the CNN debate did consist of questions from the studio audience -- although most of them, unfortunately, were of the what-would-be-your-priorities-in-your-first-100-days variety.

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Brooklyn, N.Y.: "One author of a new Hillary Clinton book left his pregnant wife for another woman." It was bad enough when non sequitur arguments like this were used to judge politicians, but now we have to choose who we read by the same stupid criteria? If Norman Mailer weren't alive he'd be rolling over in his grave.

Howard Kurtz: It's the old game of blame the messenger, I guess. And I doubt the person who posted that has read the Bernstein book, which has just come out.

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San Francisco: Question about The Washington Post correction/change policy, Mr. Kurtz. The article about Bush's climate change proposal, as late as this Saturday, said "Some European leaders applauded the plan" without naming any. The article's different now: "The White House said Bush's proposal has drawn positive reactions from several European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has called for more prescriptive measures for limiting global warming. There's no indication of a change or correction that's been made to the article. What's up with that?

Howard Kurtz: I don't know the backstory, but it's hardly unusual for articles to be updated as more information comes in, or as editors ask for information to be clarified or better attributed. In this case the updated story does not seem to contradict the earlier one.

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Cortez, Colo.: On your show Sunday, you quoted a percentage of what I call trash coverage (Spears, Hilton, Baldwin, various sensational murders, etc....) that was much lower than what I would have thought. Maybe I have been wrong to do so all these years, but the minute I hear a celebrity name or a no-news news item, I change the channel and may or may not get back to it. I just may have been missing important discussions all this time.

Howard Kurtz: I think a lot of people have gotten to that point (having seen umpteen mentions yesterday and today that Paris Hilton is going to jail, is in jail, is already disliked by fellow inmates, etc.). But as we learned anew from the Anna Nicole saga, enough viewers like this stuff that they give a ratings bump to the networks and programs that air it.

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"Even though he had met with her once before . . .": Careful, Howie. You make it sound like he met with her and her alone. Actually, he met with Cindy Sheehan and 40 other mothers of dead soldiers. I doubt if there was any chance for a conversation.

Howard Kurtz: Well, it's true that she was part of a group. I don't know that that changes my point. She demanded another meeting as part of an attention-getting plan -- because Bush was unlikely to grant the request -- and it worked.

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Philadelphia: How do you feel about CNN's hiring of a reporter to cover the Paris Hilton/Lindsay Lohan type stories?

Howard Kurtz: Only one?

Actually, in the Project for Excellence in Journalism study alluded to earlier, CNN devoted 4 percent of its airtime to the Anna Nicole story in the first quarter of this year, compared to 6 percent for MSNBC and 10 percent for Fox News. As I recall, CNN was the only one of the three not to go gavel-to-gavel with the court hearings presided over by the crying judge. And took a hit in the ratings that week.

Thanks for the chat, folks.

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